Laminated paper products, particularly laminated tissue products, have long been available to meet consumer needs for absorbency (e. g. paper towels for spill cleanup), sanitation (e. g. toilet tissue) and protection (e. g. paper napkins). Over the years, these consumer needs have directed the art toward optimization of specific properties in such products to meet specific needs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,176, issued to Bjorkquist, et al. on Jul. 29, 1986 discloses temporary wet strength resins suitable for use in toilet tissue so the tissue remains strong during use but still readily disintegrates in sewage disposal systems. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,459 issued to Wells on Dec. 3, 1968 describes a compressible, laminated paper structure that has enjoyed wide commercial acceptance as a paper towel because of its excellent softness and absorbency and U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,060 issued to Murphy, et al. on Jun. 27, 1972 discloses laminated, creped tissue products said to possess improved softness useful as dinner napkins.
While each of these various types of products can also be used to meet consumer needs better met by a product optimized for that need, they still only partially meet those non-targeted needs. For example, several paper napkins may be required to wipe up a spill that could be wiped up by only one sheet of paper toweling. Conversely, several sheets of paper toweling may be required to provide the area coverage of one paper napkin. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide paper products designed to meet more than one consumer need. It is a further object of this invention to provide paper products which can be used as either a paper towel or as a paper napkin. Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide laminated paper products that possess the strength, absorbency and softness properties of a paper towel while, at the same time, meeting the softness and area coverage requirements of the paper napkin user more readily than currently available paper towels.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following description and the accompanying drawings.